Space-time (ST) coding using multiple transmit-antennae has been recognized as an attractive means of achieving high data rate transmissions with diversity and coding gains in wireless applications. However, ST codes are typically designed for frequency flat channels. Future broadband wireless systems will likely communicate symbols with duration smaller than the channel delay spread, which gives rise to frequency selective propagation effects. When targeting broadband wireless applications, it is important to design ST codes in the presence of frequency selective multipath channels. Unlike flat fading channels, optimal design of ST codes for dispersive multipath channels is complex because signals from different antennas are mixed not only in space, but also in time. In order to maintain decoding simplicity and take advantage of existing ST coding designs for flat fading channels, most conventional techniques have pursued two-step approaches. In particular, the techniques mitigate intersymbol interference (ISI) by converting frequency selective fading channels to flat fading channels, and then design ST coders and decoders for the resulting flat fading channels. One approach to ISI mitigation has been to employ a relatively complex multiple-input multiple-output equalizer (MIMO-EQ) at the receiver to turn FIR channels into temporal ISI-free ones.
Another approach, with lower receiver complexity, is to employ orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which converts frequency selective multipath channels into a set of flat fading subchannels through inverse Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and cyclic prefix (CP) insertion at the transmitter, together with CP removal and FFT processing at the receiver. On the flat fading OFDM subchannels, many techniques have applied ST coding for transmissions over frequency-selective channels. Some of these assume channel knowledge, while others require no channel knowledge at the transmitter.
Although using ST codes designed for flat fading channels can at least achieve full multi-antenna diversity, the potential diversity gains embedded in multipath propagation have not been addressed thoroughly. OFDM based systems are able to achieve both multi-antenna and multipath diversity gains of order equal to the product of the number of transmit-antennas, the number of receive-antennas, and the number of FIR channel taps. However, code designs that guarantee full exploitation of the embedded diversity have not been explored. A simple design achieves full diversity, but it is essentially a repeated transmission, which decreases the transmission rate considerably. On the other hand, for single antenna transmissions, it has been shown that a diversity order equal to the number of FIR taps is achievable when OFDM transmissions are linearly precoded across subcarriers. An inherent limitation of multicarrier (OFDM) based ST transmissions is a non-constant modulus, which necessitates power amplifier back-off, and thus reduces power efficiency. In addition, multi-carrier schemes are more sensitive to carrier frequency offsets relative to their single-carrier counterparts.